Man held after Queen’s portrait sprayed with paint in Westminster Abbey

John Simpson

Friday June 14 2013, 1.01am, The Times

A Portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, 2012, by Ralph Heimans

PA

John Simpson

Friday June 14 2013, 1.01am, The Times

A campaigner from Fathers4Justice, the pressure group, has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after a portrait of the Queen was vandalised in Westminster Abbey

The word “Help” was apparently sprayed on to Ralph Heimans’s oil on canvas portrait, which was commissioned to commemorate the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

The painting had been on display in Chapter House at the Abbey for only a few weeks. It has now been removed for repair.

Fathers4Justice, whose members are largely men who have lost access to their children, identified the man arrested as Tim Haries, an electrical engineer from Doncaster, who claims that his two daughters were “abducted” by their mother three years ago.

The group distanced itself from what it called a “Father’s Day Protest” yesterday,